Video alleges security problems with converted cutters

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Video alleges security problems with converted cutters

By Patricia Kime
Times staff writer

The 123-foot cutter Matagorda stops at Integrated Support Command in New Orleans on March 27, 2004, some time before it developed a crack in its superstructure. — Public Affairs Specialist Third Class Jonathan McCool / U.S. Coast Guard
A man claiming to have been Lockheed Martin’s C4ISR systems engineering lead for the Coast Guard’s 123-foot patrol boat project has posted a video on the Web site YouTube.com alleging problems with the boats’ surveillance and communications systems, and his inability to get Lockheed Martin or government officials to seriously investigate his claims.
In the 10-minute video, the man reads a prepared statement describing alleged problems with the boats’ cameras and secure communications systems.
He holds up engineering diagrams of a 123-footer, which he says illustrate “blind spots” in the ships’ surveillance systems. The man says that unless the boat’s crew posts watchstanders, the camera surveillance system leaves those aboard vulnerable to attack.
The man also states that the secure communications system, which was designed to allow the Coast Guard to talk and send data securely to systems used by the Navy and law enforcement agencies, is vulnerable to eavesdropping.
A spokeswoman for the Coast Guard’s Deepwater recapitalization program said the service is aware of the video and the allegations, and added that the Coast Guard is cooperating with an ongoing investigation into the matter by the Homeland Security Department’s Inspector General.
“The Coast Guard takes very seriously concerns of national security, and are fully cooperating with the IG’s investigation, and because of that ongoing investigation, [the service] will not discuss the details that appear in the video,” Deepwater spokeswoman Mary Elder said Monday.
The Coast Guard’s chief of media relations, Cmdr. Jeff Carter, said the service has requested that YouTube, Inc. remove the video.
“It contains material that is innappropriate for discussion in a public forum and could compromise the safety and security of Coast Guard cutters and their crews,” Carter said.
The Coast Guard has eight 123-foot cutters, which were built between 2003 and 2005. The patrol boats actually are converted 110-foot Island Class patrol boats, stretched to accommodate a new superstructure, stern-ramp capability to launch small boats, improved living quarters and technology upgrades.
The boats, built under the Deepwater recapitalization contract, were intended to serve as a bridge between the service’s current fleet of 110-foot patrol boats and a planned fast-response cutter.
The service originally planned to convert all 49 of its 110s, but structural flaws found in the converted boats caused the Coast Guard to scuttle the program after eight conversions.
The first vessel built under the program was the 123-foot Matagorda. The work was done by HBJV, a joint venture between Bollinger and Halter Marine Inc. of Gulfport, Miss., working as a sub-contractor to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems.
Shortly after Matagorda reentered the fleet and arrived in its home port of Key West, Fla., it developed a six-inch crack forward of its superstructure and a buckled hull on the starboard side.
Repairs were made and changes done to the initial design, but at least three of the eight 123-foot vessels have experienced “hull deformities.”
The patrol boat program was the first major acquisition under the Coast Guard’s Deepwater project, a $24 billion contract to replace its ships, aircraft and systems.
The contract is managed by the Coast Guard but overseen by Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a systems integrator that is a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.


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